The Washburn Student Government Association (WSGA) recently announced that its current president, Zac Surritt, and vice president, Jim Henry, will be replaced soon as two new students have been elected to take up their positions as heads of the WSGA. Surritt and Henry have both served the WSGA since April of last year and have both had a great deal of success with the organization as well as their academics at our university. While their time with the WSGA may be ending, it is important to look back over the past year and recognize all of the work they have done for our university and its student body.

Surritt is a senior who is studying public administration and law at Washburn. As the president of the WSGA, he has many duties and responsibilities to Washburn’s student body including listening to the concerns of students and implementing change where he could. Surritt stressed the importance of listening to students at Washburn and by living the motto of the WSGA which is “students serving students.”

Among the various projects that Surritt worked on throughout his time as the president of the WSGA he said that, “We’ve recently done things with the smoking policy at Washburn. We’ve been trying to cut down on the amount of smoking that takes place on campus and we’re even moving towards making Washburn a smoke-free campus.”

He went on to say, “The counseling services have always been one of our biggest issues. We’ve created a counseling services hotline where students can get help 24/7 and it is translated into over a hundred different languages that helps to alleviate the stress on the counseling services at Washburn which are underfunded and understaffed at times. I’ve been very pleased with the progress we’ve made there.”

Henry is also a senior at Washburn who is studying management and finance. He has been a part of the WSGA since the spring of 2016 during his freshman year and has been an integral part of the organization that he helps run alongside Surritt. Henry spoke at length about other projects that he helped manage that have since benefitted Washburn’s student body such as revamping the meal plans and bringing a greater focus on topics such as sexual harassment to our campus.

“We’ve been creating a lot of awareness for sexual assault as well as promoting growth for diversity and inclusion. We’ve had a few resolutions over the last year that are really trying to push for some action through the university to make sure that we are really doing everything we can to make sure we are creating a welcoming and safe environment for everyone on campus.”

Both Surritt and Henry are great representations of what the WSGA is as they actively seek to do the best they can to listen to the student body and enact changes that benefit the entire campus. Surritt and Henry will be replaced by Michael Guerrero and Matthew Christman on April 17 as the new president and vice president.